McKay was able to plead guilty to a lesser charge because the stab wounds he inflicted on the victim were superficial, said Stinson.

The lawyer added that the victim also did not want to have anything to do with the case.

Woman gets conditional sentence for fraud

Posted Sep 18, 2014 on www.leaderpost.com

A gambling problem results to a conditional sentence for Yvette M. Kew, who submitted a guilty plea to a charge of fraud over $5,000.

Kew bilked $22,464.13 from former Lang Insurance where she was tasked with taking care of the wages of employees.

The sentence, wherein instead of jail, Kew will be allowed to serve her 15 months in the community, was a joint submission by the Crown and Regina lawyer Saul Schachter which the judge approved.

Kew was also ordered to pay back the full amount she had taken.

Aside from having no previous record, Kew did not deny when her employer asked her when he noticed the missing funds.

She also cooperated with the investigation.

Traffic tickets to increase with installation of new photo radar cameras

Posted Sep 17, 2014 on www.thestarphoenix.com

The issuance of traffic tickets may increase with the installation of photo radar cameras on Circle Drive with one to be used solely for school zones.

If a driver goes beyond the 90-kilometre speed limit on Circle Drive, he will be issued a fine of $110 with an addition of $1 for every one kilometre in excess of the speed limit.

The fine is higher in the school zones with the base fine pegged at $190 with an addition of $2 per kilometre excess of the speed limit.

According to the Saskatchewan Government Insurance, drivers usually records an average speed limit of 98 kilometres on Circle Drive.

Saskatoon lawyer Lisa Watson said that for a judge to throw out a traffic ticket, he or she must be convinced that the driver was under the impression that he was driving within the speed limit.

The photo radar cameras will be installed in the middle of October.

Man gets prison for break and enter, assault

Posted Sep 16, 2014 on www.leaderpost.com

Terrance Dustyhorn has been meted with a prison sentence of five years for submitting a guilty plea to break, enter and commit assault with a weapon.

Dustyhorn together with Christopher Ahenakew had gone to the house of a man whom he believed was providing his lady friend with morphine.

Dustyhorn said that he had already warned the man about it but when he didn't take heed, he decided to go and confront the victim.

He had hit the victim with a machete and although police found the victim bloodied, his injuries were not that severe.

Regina defence lawyer Noah Evanchuk said Dustyhorn had no intention of really harming or maiming the victim considering that he is larger than him.

Aside from admitting his crime, Dustyhorn also cleared Ahenakew, saying he had nothing to do with it.

Ahenakew submitted a guilty plea to being unlawfully in a dwelling house and was handed a six-month sentence to be served in the community and a year probation.

Appeals Court lowers sentence for sexual assault convict

Posted Sep 12, 2014 on www.leaderpost.com

Konrad D. Dyck successfully appealed his 10-year sentence for admitting to aggravated sexual assault after the Appeals Court decided to lower it to a little more than five years.

Dyck was originally sentenced to nine years for brutally and humiliatingly raping a woman, who was 20 years old at the time the incident happened in 2011. And, another year for evading arrest and crashing his vehicle in the process.

He was left with eight years and a half to serve after the judge credited him for time served in custody.

However, the Appeals judge found the nine-year sentence for aggravated assault unfitting and lowered it to six years.

Although the one year for fleeing police was retained, after the credited time served, Dyck only has five years and one month to serve.

Nepal citizens who are working in Canada on a temporary permit should be given a reprieve, according to Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma.

Sharma said that the Canadian government should do something for the foreign workers from Nepal which recently suffered from a very strong earthquake.

The lawyer has proposed to have the foreign workers from Nepal be given permanent residency as some of them already had their permits expiring.

He said that a little less than 400 Nepalese are working in Canada under the temporary foreign worker program.

Sharma added that with the catastrophe, it will not be appropriate to be sending them back to Nepal.

National defence expresses desire to settle sex assault claims

Posted Mar 16, 2015 on www.vicnews.com

London litigator Phillip Millar and lawyers of the Justice Department are working together after the Department of National Defence said it wanted to settle the claims made by eight women who alleged they were sexually assaulted by the department's medical technician.

According to the victims, they were subjected to a breast examination wherein they were touched inappropriately by James Wilks.

Wilks had denied the claims of the women and that he had done the examinations according to the standard procedure.

In 2013, several women including four of the five who have filed a claim, brought their complaints against Wilks in a court martial wherein he was convicted for several counts of breach of trust and sexual assault. The military judge gave his nod to proof that the victims, all under 40, did not have to undergo the breast examination.

He was sentenced to two years and six months which he hasn't started serving yet because he has appealed the conviction.

It was not the first time that Wilks has been convicted by a court martial because in 2011, he was also handed a nine-month sentence after he was convicted of charges of the same nature.

Millar said his clients are happy that the National Defence wants to go for a settlement.